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The Young Georgians

It’s been a while since Celts used to celebrate the end of a summer with a harvest festival. It was called Samhain. The ritual was linked to festivals in other Celtic cultures, and continued to be celebrated in medieval times. Because of its date (October 31) the festival was linked to All Saint’s Day (November 1) which is also referred to as All Hallows. The eve of All Hallows was called All-Hallows-Even which later transformed into Halloween.

During Samhain people walked between Bonfires which was considered as a cleansing ritual. Young men wore costumes and masks, and they were impersonating dead. Celts thought that by all these they were warding of harmful spirits.

Modern Halloween developed over time, but the idea stayed the same – people wear spooky masks and costumes to scare off evil spirits. At certain point humans began to commemorate souls by curving pumpkins into a so called jack-o’-lanterns. Pumpkins with a candle inside were placed in windows in order to ward off bad spirits.

Today, Halloween is largely celebrated in Northern America, Ireland and in the UK. In other countries, mostly young generation adopted the holiday and they celebrate it as well. People wear scary and sometimes funny costumes, kids go on a trick-or-treat and various parties are held. Just like in most of the western countries, some Georgians celebrate Halloween too. For years, Halloween party has been held in several schools, cafes and clubs. (more…)

This is an ethnic map of Georgia that was released by the European Centre For Minority Issues. It is a bit outdated because it was released in January, 2009, but no other similar map has been released since then.

According to the data there were 239,872 Georgians in Abkhazia in 1989, however according to 2009 data there are approximately 45,000-65,000 left, who either stayed after the war or returned mainly around Gali (which is the closest town to the Georgian border).

According to the same data there were 28,544 officially registered Georgians in South Ossetia in 1989, today the there are only 2-3,000.

Take a look at more interesting info at the map below:

Most of the young Georgians from Abkhazia have IDP status and they live around Georgia or around the world. Those from Abkhazia have not had a chance to get back to their homes for almost 20 years, some of them even don’t remember how their houses look/looked (because part of the property was either burned or destroyed). Will they ever have a chance to stand on their homeland? Nobody has an answer..